On tour and signed up to a label...Kill The Ideal enjoys ‘surreal’ year

Published:16:40Sunday 03 August 2014

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“Everything’s been so surreal lately, I’m just taking it all in now,” said Kill The Ideal frontman Ashley Wilson.

The guitarist and lead singer was reflecting on the Boston rock band’s year to remember, which sees them currently closing in on the halfway stage of a two-week UK tour.

London, Brighton, Sheffield, Southampton and Derby are just a handful of cities the four-piece will play during their 11-date tour, which will see them headline their own shows as well as playing alongside Yorkshire band Flames Over Broadway.

For 14 nights, Ashley, bassist Luke Farmer, drummer Jordan Bell and guitarist Ross Gallagher, will travel, sleep and even eat in Luke’s yellow van, which the band have nicknamed The West.

And they better get used to it, because a second tour is being planned later in the year to help promote the band’s upcoming EP Heritage, their first release since signing to Universal Atlanta records.

“When we were recording the EP we had to share a tent for a week,” Ashley said.

“We managed to survive that, so I’m pretty sure we’ll be fine this time, even if it does mean sleeping upright in a van.”

But even if each night’s accommodation is hardly five-star, the quartet are adamant that it is the music and not the sleeping arrangements that they are concentrating on.

“We’re playing at some really good venues and the tour’s all about getting our name out there and getting our songs known,” Ashley continued.

“This is a great opportunity for us, and we’ve been working hard to make sure we get everything right.

“Most of the people we’ll be playing in front of won’t have a clue who we are, so it’s up to us to make sure we make an impression.”

Indeed, Kill The Ideal’s current tour is aimed at creating a buzz about their music ahead of the release of Heritage.

They’re not doing a bad job so far, their music videos on YouTube have already seen them begin to get fanbases in both the USA and Japan.

Heritage was recorded at Wisbech’s Regal House Studios.

Although it is still being mixed, Ashley admits he likes what he is hearing.

He said: “I cried the first time I heard it.

“It really does sound fantastic. I know it’s us, but when I first heard it I thought to myself ‘is it really us?’

“It just sounds really professional.”

A release date for the four-track EP is yet to be confirmed, but it is planned to be available sometime around September.